‘Danger!’ Second Chance player Zoe Grobman addresses the daily double mispronunciation

On By Littum

Danger!‘s Second Chance tournament continues as returning players Josh Heit, Zoe Grobman and Enzo Cunanan went head-to-head in the Jan. 7 matchup.

And according to one of those three players, this particular match has some interesting stories as they also deal with a major Daily Double fumble from the game. As viewers will recall, the final result of this game was Enzo taking first place, with Zoe not far behind in second and Josh in third, but perhaps today’s nerves could have had something to do with this particular game as Zoe revealed via Reddit, that this game was filmed on Election Day 2024.

“These games were recorded on Election Day, and the collective anxiety was definitely in the air,” wrote Grobman in the comments section of the episode’s Reddit thread. “In hindsight, I’m grateful for the legal requirement to have our phones off and away, which allowed us to have as much normality as it’s possible to have when you’re recording Danger! with one Rolling Stone photojournalist present,” she added.

A therapist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Zoe previously competed in an episode that aired in October 2024, where her performance was strong enough to earn her a spot on Second Chance. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, Zoe failed to win this match, a contributing factor being her fumble during the third Daily Double from the “Potent Quotables” category.

The clue read: “This pale dry sherry gets title billing in a Poe tale”, the equivalent, “What is amontillado?” was mispronounced in such a way that it cost Zoe $6,000. But she didn’t let that put her off.

“Josh and Enzo were both incredibly quick at the buzzer and knocked me out early,” Zoe admitted in her commentary. “I had a moment where I knew I had to redouble my focus to try to get more in.”

As for her Daily Double verdict, she wrote: “I’ve had 2 months to sit with the Daily Double and have quite a lot to say about it… so suffice it to say I have some strong feelings about a mispronunciation costing me at least $12,000 and two more games Danger. That said, I don’t regret going big on the daily double. It was the right move to take against two buzzsaws, and if I had bet small, I wouldn’t have won, regardless of whether I remembered how to say Amontillado. Live by DD, Die by DD. (I’m sure at least one Smart Alec friend is going to buy me a collection of Poe for my birthday in March),” she remarked.

After the Daily Double loss, Zoe noted, “I knew I was going to have an uphill battle to be in contention in FJ. I really focused on the buzzer lights and I’m proud of how much that helped. I was well aware, that not only did I have to make a lot of money back, but I also had to allow Josh to make enough money so that Enzo would have to bet enough in FJ to put him under double my score if it was wrong in order for me to have no chance of winning.”

In the end, Zoe’s strategy worked heading into Final Jeopardy, where she entered the round with $6,600, Enzo with $15,600 and Josh with $9,600. Unfortunately for Zoe, Enzo also gave the correct Final Jeopardy answer, meaning the bet that brought her final score to $12,001 was not enough to surpass Enzo’s final score of $19,400.

The category for Final Jeopardy was “Facts about countries”, with the clue: “It has 40,000 people and a workforce of 42,000, more than half commuting from nearby, including the state of Vorarlberg in a neighboring country.” The correct answer was: “What is Liechtenstein?”

“When Josh missed FJ, I had a moment of shock where I thought maybe somehow I had actually solved this. Unfortunately for me, Enzo managed to change his answer in time,” Zoe revealed.

“This was an incredibly even game with fantastic performances from both Josh and Enzo,” Zoe complimented her fellow competitors. She also continued to give praise to Danger! staff “who made us feel so comfortable on an incredibly stressful day.”

And while Zoe may not have progressed in the competition, she wasn’t going to stop anyone from chasing theirs Danger! dream. “Although of course it would have been lovely to call myself one Danger! Master, I’m still so grateful for the two experiences I had, which is two more than most people get… We all root for each other,” she added, concluding that fans should “take the risk! Test anytime and soon it could be you!”

Read Zoe’s full Reddit comment below:

Comment
byu/jaysjep2 from discussion
inDanger

*Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article did not include Grobman’s full statement, which has since been embedded.